Service Gestures

In service all the processes and routines can be determined by the smallest details. These small details are called service gestures. Service gestures are for example when the check-in ground crew circle the departure gate on the ticket or when the toilet paper has been folded in the hotel room [p 147].

Service gestures aren’t a magic bullet; after all, you’ve got to learn the trade itself before you bother with the tricks-of-the-trade. But this idea shares a kinship with the “random acts of kindness” I wrote about a few months ago. They’re both examples that capture our attention and add value to a service.

One difference is that the service gestures Koivisto refers to are codified. Folding over the toilet paper serves a particular signaling function within the context of housekeeping. This signal is common enough that we come to expect it when we stay at a hotel and miss it when it’s absent. The gestures I’m interested in are different. They’re acts we can’t anticipate.

Here’s an example. When I was growing up I had my hair cut by the same barber from the time I was three until I left for college. It’s safe to say the service was routine. But once when I was a teenager the barber used an antique shaving cream dispenser and a straight razor to touch up my sideburns. I’d never had a straight razor shave before. It was a slow afternoon and the gesture wasn’t normally part of the service. But it made an impression and more than fifteen years later I still remember.

Each of us probably has a story to share about an otherwise tiny act that we cherish from a favorite service. What gestures have made an impression on you?